Gavin Newsom--the onetime San Francisco mayor, current California lieutenant governor and possible future governor or U.S. senator--is scheduled to give the keynote speech tonight at the 18th Annual Truman Awards Dinner in Anaheim for the Democratic Party of Orange County.

Newsom follows Barney Frank***--the powerful Massachusetts congressman who gave a rousing, anti-Republican Party address last year--as entertainment for the primary fundraising event for local Democrats in 2012.

This year's soiree will be held at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and undoubtedly will be crammed with acclaimed criminal defense lawyers, immigration activists and public employee union members anxious to listen to the man many Democrats hope will someday replace Jerry Brown in the governor's mansion.

Sharon Quirk-Silva, who is campaigning against Republican state Assemblyman Chris Norby, will be honored with the Harry S Truman Award. Joseph Kerr, a longtime union official, will receive the Samuel Gompers Award. Christopher Townsend, one of the region's most savvy government lobbyists, will get the Richard O'Neill Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ticket prices begin at $150 for general admission or $125 for members of the local Young Democrats committee.

A VIP reception ($1,000 and up) is set for 5 p.m. with the dinner and main program beginning at 7 p.m.

For more information, contact Nick Anas at rsvp@ocdemocrats.org or call (714) 835-5158.

R. Scott Moxley’s award-winning investigative journalism has touched nerves for two decades. An angry congressman threatened to break Moxley’s knee caps. A dirty sheriff promised his critical reporting was irrelevant and then landed in prison. Corporate crooks won’t take his calls. Murderous gangsters mad-dogged him in court. The U.S. House of Representatives debated his work. Pusillanimous cops have left hostile messages using fake names. Federal prosecutors credited his stories for the arrest of a doctor who sold fake medicine to dying patients. And a frantic state legislator literally caught sleeping with lobbyists sprinted down state capital hallways to evade his questions in Sacramento.